


Ode on intimations of immortality from recollections of early childhood

by Illumina



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Aftermath of Possession, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Clay | Dream Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Cute Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), De-Aged Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Deity Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Demon Summoning, Demonic Possession, Demons, Dream Demon, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Hurt, Hurt Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt/Comfort, Kid Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Kid Fic, Long-Haired Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Scared Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Thief Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Touch-Starved Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-21
Updated: 2021-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-27 03:41:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30116631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illumina/pseuds/Illumina
Summary: "Dream.", XD said with the gentleness of freshly fallen snow, carefully reaching out, attempting to ignore how the young mortal flinched back and away from him as if he would ever harm him.XD did not have a heart. But his chest ached with a heaviness that was not as dark as the hurt in Dream's eyes, not as consuming and wounding."You are my greatest creation, a masterpiece-""If I am your greatest masterpiece then you must be a god because no human could ever be this monstrous.", the young blond hissed with venom dripping from his lips and hatred burning in his eyes."Dream-", he started, reaching out to touch his shoulder, draw him closer and comfort him-"Do not ever try to touch me again.", the aforementioned snarled. And then he turned and took off into the woods, leaving XD with the taste of gloom and broken mortality on his tongue.Or Dream, XD, Nightmare and their story.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Darryl Noveschosch, Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Jack Manifold, Clay | Dream & Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF) & Ender Dragon (Minecraft)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 129





	Ode on intimations of immortality from recollections of early childhood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> XD gets stuck with a child  
> At least the kid is cute

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: violence (towards a child especially), child abandonment, injuries
> 
> Yeah, I am starting another fic what about it. Just follow me on Twitter @IlluminaIsTaken and on Tumblr @illumina777 and maybe on here too :)

They tore out his golden tongue and made him bleed honey until he choked on it; blinded him with his own sweetness until it felt bitter. And he sensed honey sliding down his throat, felt it curl around his windpipe and it crushed him, pulled him together until his lungs turned to dust and his screams for help died down in his raw, bleeding throat because they were the only ones near him and they were leading him to his demise. 

They were leading him away from the safety of a village he never called family and the comfort that were his friends and the knowledge that he had called home and into the unknown and the unknown scared him. They knew that. It was why they were going there.

They filled in the gaps in him with glass shards and they might as well have left him broken because it hurt and he was tired, his youth in his dilapidated hands and was this supposed to be childhood? Because to Dream, it was the nightmare of adulthood that his bony shoulders and tiny, frail body could not carry.

They left him with swollen lips, too sore to use and from his bruises sprouted vibrant sunflowers. He feared that they would start to wilt with him for they’ve made him fear his virtue, the glitter on his gentle hands that carried too many scars for him to call himself a child. 

He trembled in the new reflection of his smallest mistakes, torn and blown up full size in his young, panic-filled mind, exaggerated and leaving him gasping for air that would not come into his lungs for reasons he was too young to even understand.

He was aching to be better when his soul was already so pure that they’ve made him pick at all the few flaws that hid in the cracks of his skin and the shadows of his heart just for him to think that he was nothing (that he was a monster born in the darkness).

Gloaming will come soon and with the darkness come the monsters that tear into flesh and bone. And he was scared, he had every right to be because he was young and alone in a place he had never been to before, far away from the village he had lived in and away from the friends he made there; the friends he fed and protected with all his might because they were his family, his home, they were all he had. 

Now bugs nested in the holes they’ve left. They buzzed around his ears with awry whispers, they’ve corrupted him with their wicked ways, torn down his bright lanterns that could have been mistaken for little suns (warm, bright, beautiful and free) and strung skulls up in their place and he knew he would wither soon.

They have made him believe he was the worst of them (that he was one of them in the first place although he was so far above them, flying like a bee, a blur of black and yellow energy-) for they were jealous of the youthful, intelligent glow that followed the young boy.

They stripped him of his golden demeanour (everything that made him himself) and expected him to grow as hateful and vile as they had always been. They wanted to rip his colour away from his soul, to taint him and ruin him, to turn him into something (someone) he was never meant to be in the first place. 

But he was just broken now; a graveyard of past adolescent elegance, a hollow hive without a ruler. And how could any human do such a cruel thing? How could anyone destroy someone so soft when monsters were the only ones who were supposed to hurt children and adult alike? And oh, monsters have lived in his village and they dragged him away so that other monsters could finish him off because why risk getting their pristine hands dirty with blood that might not be golden after all for Dream was mortal and only Gods bled gold. 

And they demanded his gold when he tried to offer them everything he had ever owned, pleas fluttering from trembling, bloody lips as if they were dying butterflies with scars on their diaphanous wings. They never accepted.

They put his riches in the ground or took them home with them, dirtying them with their tainted hands. Their fruitless attempts to take what was rightfully his only left them toppling over into insanity (and a part of him wished that they would die the most gruesome death and that their bodies would rot away never to be found and given a proper burial because that was what monsters deserved). 

But he was no less tainted from their efforts and Dream thought no one would ever see his light flicker out, that he would die alone and in disgrace, tied down in the middle of an open field as the darkness crawled over him with fine, dainty legs. And his skin soaked it up, hoping that it would be able to whelve, to survive and Dream was aware that it was impossible and that hope was all gone. For no one was out in the fields far away from the village and no one would hear his desperate cries. It was why they brought him here.

And he wished that he wouldn't have stolen from them but even children knew what they needed to do to survive. He had known that it would cause him much pain too, had seen friends and foes lose their hands as punishment on the market. He had seen the limbs drop, the blood spill, their cries of anguish were a music disc that kept playing in his head even though its box was long burnt down and the ashes got lost in the wind. 

His eyes were shut so tightly that he could blame it on that when the tears started pouring upon hearing the echo of a monster's growl as the sun left her child to rot and die in a field of sunflowers and if Dream were older and more powerful, he would have thought of it as poetic in some sick, twisted way. 

"Child. ", someone said and Dream opened his emerald eyes to see a glimmer in the darkness as a mask stared into his soul and the monsters crawled away with loud hisses, afraid of the guardian that gently touched his shoulder. As if he could shatter. The young boy did not have it in himself to flinch away from the mysterious figure and their touch was light and warm. The people had cold hands and so he allowed the stranger to rest their hand on his shoulder.

" Sweet boy. ", they continued, cutting through the chains with a sword that seemed to be made of the sun's flesh. And the chains crumbled with the very first hit. Dream was free, no longer bound to the earth, doomed. He was free and yet he stayed. He did not know why. Maybe because his body was shaking so hard that he doubted his legs would be able to carry the little weight he had. Maybe because he had nowhere to go. Maybe because he knew that without a weapon he did not stand a chance against the creatures of the night and they feared the stranger, so maybe, he was safe. 

" What are you doing out here in the dark, all on your own?", the person whispered and a sob bubbled up in his throat. It came out as a choked sound that died as soon as it managed to slip past his lips. He stubbornly looked down as he wiped the tears away for crying was a sign of weakness and Dream could not afford to be weak. Not back then, not now, not ever. Because weakness meant punishment, punishment meant death and the young boy was not ready to die for he was scared of it, scared of whatever awaited him, of the nothingness, the pain, the darkness-

The figure tilted their head to the side and the world seemed to tilt with them. They opened their arms as they sunk onto their knees and it was warm and inviting. Dream stood on shaky feet like a newborn fawn would and stumbled into them, clutching their soft satin robe with heavy sobs and he knew he should be thanking them, should apologise for ruining their expensive clothes with his tainted self, it would be rude not to, but words were destroyed as soon as they entered his mouth. They came out butchered and odd and so did his apologies.

His knight so shining and so bright only ran their slender hands through his sun-kissed hair, whispering sweet nothings into the cold night air while Dream clung to them as if they were the only one who kept him from sinking into the ink of the night, to drown all alone in the dark. 

Under all the robes he felt a warm body with muscles. He didn't feel warm breath on him but it didn't bother the young blond too much if he was honest. His skin was turning paler the longer they stayed like this in the middle of the field bathing in starglow and moonshine as they waited. Neither of them seemed to know what they were waiting for, yet deep down the boy knew that he was waiting for the man to pull away and disappear into thin air as if he had never been here in the first place. And the man would be leaving him to die as they had done.

And maybe they were crueller than any tyrant that had ever ruled their sun-touched land with an iron fist because maybe, they had sent him. They opened a box and let out hope, sent him right into the white glow's arms only to rip every ounce of hard-earned happiness from his hands. And so he held on tighter until his knuckles were white snow and the tears seemed to freeze his cheeks as he watched the beasts linger, watched them wait for their prey to be alone (since they knew he was brought here to die, to be killed by them, torn to bits) and he himself waited too, waited for the man to speak, to let go, to get up, to leave, to abandon him and leave him to die as everyone else had done--

"Tell me, child. ", the stranger started," why do you wander? The night is dangerous and the moon is not a merciful man. ", they said and Dream swallowed a sob, burying his face in their shoulder as shivers wracked his body. " Little one. You are freezing. Why come out here if it hurts you?", they continued voice warm like the sun, pulling him closer and opening some of their outer robes. They moved them aside, shifted him so that he was against their chest and then used the expensive material to shield him from father frost and the rabbit in the moon. 

And their warmth was tempting, melted his honey skin and insides until he was nothing but clay in their hands, allowed to be shifted according to their desires. "I didn't want to come here. ", he cried out, shoving his face into their chest as they rocked him back and forth, fingers rubbing circles into his back to calm him. " They dragged me out here. They left me to die. They-", he shuddered swallowed and shook his head as they hummed. As is they understood what he had attempted to tell him. They could not have. Adults said that he stuttered too much, talked too loud or too quiet and way too fast, no one could pay attention to someone like him-

"I see, I see. ", they said and sighed softly. " Do you have a safe place to stay, little one? I cannot leave you here alone but I can take you wherever you want. ", they vowed and oh, people in the past had promised him similar things. They had promised him the world and his hands had remained empty for humans made assurances they would never keep.

" I-", he cut himself off, twisted the fabric and tried to hide himself from the man and the world around them because he did not want to embarrass himself, did not want to seem more vulnerable and weak than he already was. He was bruised and bloody, young and frail, a child left alone in the wilderness to rot. He was not strong no matter how high he would build his walls, this man would step over them as if they had not been there in the first place. "I do not- I- If I come back, they will kill me. I- I don't wanna die, please don't take me back, I'll do anything you want, I can be good- I can be a good kid-"

The stranger shushed him again with so much gentleness that Dream obeyed without a second thought. "I see. ", they repeated and for a few heartbeats, all he heard were the sounds of growls and hisses (and far away he heard a witch laugh, he shivered again, trying to hide deeper in the robes because witches were evil and they had told him they poisoned little children with potions and bittersweet sharp words to lure them into the woods and rip their souls out of their bodies-).

" Do you want to remain with me for a while, little one?", the man asked softly and normally Dream would have said no because strangers were full of danger but what did he have to lose when he was on the brink of death anyway? 

"Can I?", he whispered softly, looking up at the man with tears in his emerald-green eyes. The mask showed no emotion but the man's voice was as welcoming and gentle as it could be. " If that is what you want, of course. "   
Dream clutched the delicate fabric in his dirt-crusted fingers. "Please. ", he mumbled into their robes and the stranger hummed, wrapped their arms around him as they lifted him up, rising to their feet in one swift movement.

They held him close to their chest and properly wrapped the robes around him as his eyes fluttered shut and sweet stole him away to a better place where he was young, wild, beautiful and free and there were no cruel beings to ruin his childhood.


End file.
